Jesus in the Homeless
This past Wednesday we were enlightened to learn that there is a homeless camp behind Jacaranda Library. We prayed and discussed some ideas that were deemed helpful to those who could be involved. God’s Word tells us: “The righteous considers the cause of the poor, But the wicked does not understand such knowledge.” Proverbs 29:7
Shane Claiborne, who has taken the gospel beyond the streets of Philadelphia to the slums of Calcutta and the war zones of Iraq, describes how God revealed himself through the homeless:
I saw one woman in a crowd as she struggled to get a meal from one of the late-night food vans. When we asked her if the meals were really worth the fight, she said, “Oh yes, but I don’t eat them myself. I get them for another homeless lady — an elderly woman around the corner who can’t fight for a meal.”
I saw a street kid get $20 panhandling outside of a store and then immediately run inside to share it with his friends. We saw a homeless man lay a pack of cigarettes in the offering plate because it was all he had. I met a blind street musician who was viciously abused by some young guys who would mock her, curse her, and one night even sprayed Lysol in her eyes as a practical joke. As we held her that night, one of us said, “There are a lot of bad folks in the world, aren’t there?”
She said, “Oh, but there are a lot of good ones too. And the bad ones make you, the good ones, seem even sweeter.”
We met a little girl who was homeless and asked her what she wanted to do when she grew up. “I want to own a grocery store,” she said. We asked her why, and she said, “So I can give out food to all the hungry people.”
Mother Teresa used to say, “In the poor we meet Jesus in his most distressing disguises.” Now I knew what she meant. — Shane Claiborne
— Pastor Larry
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